Suburban Retooling: Penn Daw Takes the Lead

One of the most fascinating places to watch suburban retooling right now is at Penn-Daw, the neighborhood two miles south of Old Town on both sides of Route One. It remains a place speeding cars want to get past on their way to the next red light, but a dramatic new sense of community is unfolding.

 

County planners project Groveton, the nearby set of neighborhoods up on the top of Beacon Hill, to ultimately have more growth than Penn Daw. Those plans include a possible Metro Station that Penn Daw would not have.

 

For now, however, and for the foreseeable future, Penn Daw has taken the lead in growth with two residential developments (The Shelby and South Alex) at its major intersection of Route One and King’s Highway. A third (Belhaven Apartments) is ready to open its 350 doors, with a fourth residential project approved and scheduled to be built this year.

 

Penn Daw was born as a motel mecca that put this part of Richmond Highway on the map in the 1930s. The neighborhood got its name from E.M. Pennell and Samuel Cooper Dawson (1877-1957). Dawson lived in Alexandria, served as a vestryman of Immanuel Church on Seminary Hill and on a number of boards. His son, Samuel Cooper Dawson Jr, was born in Alexandria and graduated from Episcopal High School and UVA.

 

In 1927, Pennell and Dawson formed the Penn Daw Hotels Corporation and built the Penn Daw motel, one of the first modern motor hotels on the East Coast. It included a restaurant and became a popular stop on Route One. The Fairfax Room there served as a civic gathering place. In the summer of 1929, The Evening Star printed a guide and map for travelers and it include the Penn Daw restaurant.

 

Penn Daw continued to grow with streets such as Franklin. It is named for Harry Lehman's great grandfather, Franklin Reid and by his grandfather W.F.P. Reid, who served as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Lehman grew up in City View (1920-1959), a four-story mansion that was located next to the Beacon Airport. Penn Daw was also home to the first Fairfax City Police Sub Station.

 

Penn Daw today offers a variety of places. The beating heart is the WalMart, which brings in customers from Virginia, Maryland, and DC and sits on the site of Spring Bank, a landmark brick mansion that stood there from 1804 to 1972. Krispy Kreme remains the queen bee, while a few doors down El Pollo Ranchero celebrates their 20th anniversary and Uncle C’s Chicken & Waffles looks like it is in for a long run. Viet House is popular serving pho, noodles, and vermicelli.

 

Office Depot hangs on with old schoolers like myself buying ink, paper, and file folders. An Urgent Care facility stands close to a tobacco shop and the artery clogging food places that doctors tell us to try and avoid.

 

You never saw murals along Route One, but South Alex boasts a large new one. Aldi will open there in March while residents wait to see who fills the other small retail in the U-shaped configuration. The new stoplight there on King’s Highway annoys long timers who remember when the green light lasted longer.

The most fascinating aspect in Penn Daw right now is the set of mobile homes which sit next to where the new residential will rise. Residents there fight for their rights and hold NIMBY concerns.

 

Behind them lies a set of steep hills where Spring Bank got its name from. Dotting the hidden landscape are trees and the flow of a brook that feeds into Great Hunting Creek. There’s been some talk of this boxed-in beauty becoming a park. For now it remains one of the best kept secrets in these parts.

 

When all is said and done, everything one sees in this central part of Penn Daw could be gone. The former Penn Daw firehouse hangs on as a rental place. Its three arches give it so much potential for adaptive reuse, but it’s too close to the right of way needed for the new BRT.

 

In perhaps six years or so, a new sight will be seen in Penn Daw and along the Richmond Highway Corridor. A Bus Rapid Transit system will run from Huntington Metro Station to Fort Belvoir, a six-mile long necklace with 8 stations.

 

The county recently collected votes for the names of each station. I remember thinking that surely Penn Daw will win out. As we have seen, the name pays homage to the two businessmen who helped put it on the map. Penn Daw had an on going presence in the newspapers with ads for the Penn Daw Shopping Center, bowling tournaments at the Penn Daw Lanes, and, of course, the hotels.  A road sign the county put up several years ago says, Penn Daw.

 

Even though it moved up to Groveton, the Penn Daw Fire Department kept its long time name. Alexandria Living Magazine, Fairfax Now, and other news outlets use the Penn Daw name. Southeast Fairfax Corporations project maps and county planners use Penn Daw, which is one of six Community Business Centers along Richmond Highway.

 

Despite all of the above, it was not enough. The county recently released the results of their survey for the naming of the BRT stations. The name for the one at Penn Daw will be Kings Crossing, the name of the retail center anchored by the Walmart.